Beauty & Spas in Tacoma

Housed inside a rustic brick building in downtown Tacoma, a trio of stylists—Mia, Missy, and Amber—sling L'Oréal products as they cut, color, and alter the texture of clients' hair. Meanwhile, in private treatment rooms enveloped in warm earthy tones, massage therapist Abrah calls upon custom techniques and hot stones to break apart stress and assuage muscle pains. The salon's aesthetician, Kylee, also works in the private treatment rooms to pump up lashes with synthetic extensions and strip away surplus fuzz with waxing treatments for the face, full body, and dorsal fin.

If not for a display case brimming with products for hair and skin, one might confuse the welcoming L'Oréal salon for a friend's posh home. The ebullient space boasts comfortable living-room furniture and delicate chandeliers flanked by lilac wall hues and wood trim.

With every snip of her shears, Amber Pubols shows off the skills she learned at The Salon Professional Academy. Her haircuts and hair-coloring services at la tresse help fill out the salon's menu, which also includes facials, eyelash extensions, waxing, and massages. She enhances each of her services with high-quality haircare products from L'Oréal, Série Expert, and Texture Expert.

Embellish divides the inside of its sea-green and turquoise Mondrian exterior into four separate areas to cover its entire range of services: styling, coloring, well-being, and shopping. In the styling space, ladies looking to truncate their surplus strands can get a basic cut ($40–$70) or upgrade to an elite cut ($60–$80) which involves adding iron works of your choice, before wrangling the whole thing into the shape of their favorite Gothic cathedral with a styling ($30–$55). Over in the color space, Embellish's mane painters will render your spiky anime hair nice and purple again with an array of full color treatments ($60–$150) and partial highlights ($60–$100). Prices vary based on the stylist and amount of work needed. Relax in the soothing blue and neutral tones of the well-being space as a hair therapy session ($45–$85) renovates your brain-lawn. Depending on your preference, your hair therapy can either feed nutrients to a malnourished mane, detox it after a night of soaking in whiskey, clear it of dandruff or excess sebum, or grow it long enough to double as an escape ladder in the event of witch abduction. A lip/eyebrow waxing ($15) strips away superfluous 'staches, and a cosmetics lesson ($45) will teach newbies how to decorate their face without looking like they just endured a sloppy make-out session with a clown.

Salon Swish’s expert stylists offer a full range of high-quality salon services in a refreshingly fun and relaxed atmosphere. Ladies' 'dos ($35+) flatter and frame feminine faces, while men’s cuts ($22+) increase blind-date-success percentages. With a range of color options to choose from, full foil color ($100+), root touch-ups ($60+), or two-tone color ($70+) can take dull strands to chromatic heights only Sherpas can comfortably breathe at. Guests can eliminate rogue face ($30), brow ($15), chin ($10), or lip ($10) fuzzies while chatting with their friendly tress transformer in Swish’s modern, spacious setting.

Inside Vamp Salon and Spa’s lime-green oasis, licensed therapist Cindy Miller brings pain to a halt with soothing massage kneads. Clients relax in private rooms during sessions, where Cindy uses warm towels, essential oils, and Swedish or deep-tissue techniques to loosen muscular knots.

The staff of CJ Salon & Spa prides itself on providing a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet of top-notch treatments in an elegant, cozy atmosphere, including spa services, skincare, hair removal, and select salon services. Tackle the full expanse of the soul sack, beginning with a brow wax ($12) to mold your mood modifiers and a basic bikini wax ($40 and up) before girding yourself in summer's fashionably risqué bloomers. You can also polish a dingy frontispiece with a 45-minute Dermalogica skin treatment ($55 and up), which includes a facial double cleanse, thorough exfoliation, extractions (if needed), a soothing mask, revivifying toner, and skin protectant to guard the recently excavated baby skin from harsh elements such as sun, wind, and the Objectivist lanthanide, aynrandium. A 30-minute mini facial ($40 and up) is a simplified variation for faces on the go, and includes a soothing cleanser, exfoliation, mask, toner, and thorough moisturizer for the face’s naturally occurring desert patches.